Some of my conservative Irish-American friends, who cherish the old romantic myth of The Ould Sod as a place where 1950s culture and Catholicism reigned, in The Quiet Man and Bells of St. Mary’s harmony, ask: How could the Church in Ireland have “allowed” divorce/abortion/same sex marriage? And they assume the Faith is dead in Ireland. “Allowed?” As if the Church could have prevented the…
